Confectionary container



Dec. 24, 1968 e. P. FONG 3,417,862

CONFECTIONARY CONTAINER Filed Dec. 2, 1966 F G. 3 IQINYENTOR. I 8&4" 9011 ATTOTRNEYS United States Patent 3,417,862 CONFECTIONARY CONTAINER Gim P. Fong, Newton, Mass., assignor to Sweetheart Plastics, Inc., Wilmington, Mass, a corporation of Maryland Filed Dec. 2, 1966, Ser. No. 598,673 3 Claims. (Cl. 206-56) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A plastic container for ice cream, sherbet and other dairy products comprising a cylinder, a piston slidable in the cylinder and an actuating handle removably secured to the piston.

This invention relates to piston and cylinder type containers for ice cream, sherbet, and other forms of dairy products.

The conventional piston and cylinder type container is regularly made of a paper tube, a cardboard disc which serves as a piston or plunger and a wooden stick that performs as a push rod to move the disc upwardly in the cylinder to dispense or expose the contents within the tube. Because the parts are made of paper, they cannot be transparent nor translucent and consequently it is not possible to view the contents of the cylinder except from the top when the paper cover normally applied is removed. A significantly more appealing package is possible when the container is made of a transparent or translucent material and the use of plastic allows the cylinder to be transparent or translucent. Further, the use of plastic material in this type of container gives the same advantages over paper as are derived in other areas of the disposable food container industry. For example, the material can be attractively decorated and textured, which is not possible with paper.

One important object of this invention is to provide a plastic container which may be made very inexpensively to replace the paper cylinder type containers now in use.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a piston type disc made of a thin plastic material possessing enough rigidity to replace the conventional cardboard disc now commonly used.

Still another important object of this invention is to provide a radially expansible disc or plunger in a cylinder type confection container, which is urged to firmly engage the outer walls of the cylinder when it is actuated.

To accomplish these and other objects, the package of this invention includes a tube made of an inexpensive material so as to be disposable. A separately fabricated piston is slidable in said tube and has a dish-shaped disc that extends across the tube and a surrounding skirt that slides along the inner Wall of the tube. An actuating handle is removably secured to the disc and when an axially directed force is applied to the disc through the handle, the dish-shaped disc is urged to straighten and thereby cause the diameter to effectively expand so that the whole skirt bears with significant pressure against the inner surface of the tube.

These and other objects and features of this invention will be better understood and appreciated, along with its incident advantages, from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a piston and cylinder type ice cream container constructed in accordance with this invention;

3,417,862 Patented Dec. 24, 1968 FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken through the container;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the piston and cylinder forming part of the container; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view showing the manner in which a number of identical pistons nest with one another in a stack.

The package shown in the drawing includes a cylinder 10 preferably extruded of a polyolefin material or similar material and having a wall thickness in the range of .015 to .030 inch. It is apparent that the cylinder may be extruded on a continuous basis and the extruded cylinder may be cut to the desired length.

Disposed in the cylinder 10 is a piston 12 which includes a circular disc 14, a surrounding skirt 16 and a central closed sleeve 18 that is designed to receive the handle 20. The handle 20 of course serves as the plunger for actuating the piston in the cylinder.

The circular disc 14 which forms part of the piston 12 is shown to be dish-shaped in FIGS. 2 and 3 and convex in the direction of the handle 20. The piston 12 may be thermoformed of a high impact styrene and have a thickness in the range of .015 to .035 inch, Because the piston is made of high impact styrene or some similar material affording it considerable flexibility, it is evident that when the central portion of the dish-shaped wall 14 is pushed upwardly as viewed in FIGS. 2 and 3, the over-all diameter of the piston will tend to expand and push the surrounding skirt 16 more firmly against the inner surface 21 of the cylinder 10.

The skirt 16 is flared downwardly and outwardly at the upper wall section 24 from the top edge 22, and the wall 24 terminates in a cylindrical section 26. The lower end of the section 26 in turn terminates in a downwardly and outwardly flared lower Wall section 28. The flared upper wall section 24 provides a lead in angle to facilitate insertion of the piston 12 in the cylinder 10 and further provides a seat for the lower flared section 28 when a number of pistons are stacked one upon the other in nested relationship as shown in FIG. 4. It is evident that the inner diameter of the narrow end of lower wall section 28 is smaller than the outer diameter of the wider end of upper wall section 24, and accordingly, the upper section 24 will support the lower section 28 of an identical piston.

The flare provided at the lower end of the skirt 26 performs still an additional function. The outer diameter of the cylindrical wall section 26 is substantially identical to the inner diameter of the cylinder. The flared lower section 28 will bind firmly against the inner surface of the cylinder 10 to form an effective seal against that wall. The lower flare 28 will cause the skirt 16 to distort somewhat when the piston is inserted in the cylinder. This distortion is of course the result of the interference fit between the flared section 28 and the cylinder. As a result, two points of contact are established, one at the lower end of flared portion 24 and another at the lower end of flared bottom section 28.

The upper end of the sleeve 18 is shown to be tapered at 30 and at the lower end at 32 to provide tapers which correspond to the upper and lower sections 24 and 28 in the skirt 16. These tapers 30 and 32 cooperate with one another to provide mating surfaces when identical pistons are nested as viewed in FIG. 4. It is evident that the nesting at the sleeve 18 prevents one piston from shifting translationally with respect to an adjacent piston in the nest.

The handle 20 may be made of wood or some similar material or may be in the form of a straw formed as an extruded rod, tube, or of wound paper. It is only necessary that the handle have enough rigidity so as to trans- 3 mit an upwardly directed force to the piston 12 to raise it and the confection supported on it in the cylinder 10.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that while the piston 12 is made of a very flexible material which would not in sheet form normally possess enough rigidity or stiffness so as to serve as the piston in a confectionary container of the type shown, its unique configuration provides it with rigidity and stiffness sufficient for the intended purpose. A firm seal or seals are assured between the cylinder and the skirt of the piston by means of the dish-shaped configuration of the circular disc 14 and the tapered configuration of the skirt 16. The upwardly directed force which tends to straighten the disc 14 results in an outwardly directed force at the periphery of the piston, which causes it to firmly engage the inner surface of the cylinder. Moreover, the interference between the lower flared portion 28 of the skirt and the inner surface of the cylinder as shown in FIG. 3 causes an effective seal to be formed between those two parts.

It will also be recognized from the foregoing description that the configuration of the ice cream container shown is extremely inexpensive to manufacture. The cylinder 10 and the handle may be extruded on a con tinuous basis and cut into appropriate lengths. The piston 12 may be vacuum formed very rapidly. Therefore, the total cost of the parts is extremely small.

It will also be appreciated from the foregoing that modifications may be made of this invention without departing from its spirit. For example, while the sleeve 18 is designed to receive the upper end of the handle 20 and a shallow seat 34 is provided for this purpose at the top of the sleeve, the sleeve 18 may be replaced by a downwardly directed boss of smaller diameter which could fit within the handle 20 if the handle is constructed as a straw or hollow tube. Because of the dish-shaped configuration of the disc 14 the upwardly directed force would still tend to increase the effective diameter of the disc to assure the formation of the seal at the cylinder 10.

What is claimed is:

1. A package for ice cream confections and the like comprising,

a tube having a first opened end and a second opened end and made of an inexpensive material so as to be disposable,

a separately fabricated, integral piston member formed of a thin plastic sheet slidable in said tube and having a flexible dished wall member bowed toward said second end and extending across the cross section of the tube with a continuous surrounding skirt that slides along in contact with the tube, said skirt extending toward said second end,

said skirt meeting said dished wall member at a first portion thereof which tapers inwardly toward said handle and upwardly toward said first opened end to define a lead-in angle for the skirt when inserted in the tube from the second end,

a middle portion of said skirt adjacent said first portion tapering toward said handle and said second end when inserted in said tube,

and an end of said skirt adjacent said middle portion tapering away from said handle toward said second end and engaging said tube so that identical unassembled pistons nest one upon the other with the first portion of one resting on the first portion of the next adjacent skirt,

an actuating handle removably secured to a central portion of the dished wall member and extending beyond said second end so that axially directed forces applied to the handle cause the dished wall member to flatten and expand so as to press the skirt against the inner surface of the tube,

said piston being disposed adjacent said second end of the tube when the tube is filled with the confection and being movable along the tube toward the first end to push the confection in the tube out the first end,

and a sleeve depending from the center of said dished wall member toward said first end to receive the handle.

2. A package as defined in claim 1 further characterized by said piston being made of a high impact polystyrene material and having a thickness approximately .015 to .035 inch.

3. A package for ice cream confections and the like comprising,

a tube made of an inexpensive material so as to be disposable,

a separately fabricated piston slidable in said tube and having a flexible dished wall member that extends across the cross section of the tube and a surrounding skirt that slides along in contact with the tube,

an actuating handle removably secured to the central portion of the dished wall member so that axially directed forces applied to the handle cause the dished wall member to flatten and expand so as to press the skirt against the inner surface of the tube,

said piston being disposed adjacent one end of the tube when the tube is filled with the confection and being movable along the tube toward the other end to push the confection in the tube out that other end,

said skirt tapering inwardly and away from the handle at its end away from the handle and the other end of the skirt tapering outwardly and toward the handle whereby identical unassembled pistons nest one upon the other with the taper at one end of one skirt resting on the taper on the other end of the next adjacent skirt,

a sleeve provided in the center of the dished wall member for engaging the handle,

and means enabling the sleeves of adjacent pistons to nest one with the other when the skirts of the pistons nest with one another.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,486,445 3/1924 Mayol 206 56 2,941,699 6/1960 Schmidt et al. 222327 3,070,224 12/1962 Robinson et al. 20656 3,236,268 2/1966 Simpson 222-386 X 3,250,443 5/ 1966 Abbott 222327 FOREIGN PATENTS 711,896 10/1941 Germany.

MARTHA L. RICE, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl X.R. -99137 

